Patterson ch07

1. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter 7

2. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-2
Voter Participation
Expansion of the vote
Initially only white property-owning men could vote
By the 1840s most property restrictions were removed
Fifteenth Amendment (1870) gave African Americans the
right to vote
 Suppressed by literacy laws and other methods
 Voting rights not fully available until the 1960s
Women received the vote in 1920 via the Twentieth
Amendment
Eighteen-year-olds received the vote in 1971 via the
Twenty-Sixth Amendment

3. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-3
Voter Participation
Factors in voter turnout: the United States in comparative
perspective
Significantly lower turnout than in European democracies
Registration requirements
 Historically a means to limit suffrage
 Determined by states
 Motor voter law

4. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-4

5. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-5

6. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-6
Voter Participation
Factors in voter turnout: the United States in comparative
perspective
Registration requirements
 Voter ID cards serve to depress voter turnout
 Georgia photo ID/voter identification card law
Federal judge struck down monetary requirement
 Supreme Court upheld Indiana voter ID card requirement

7. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-7
Voter Participation
Factors in voter turnout: the United States in comparative
perspective
Frequency of elections
 Elections at many levels of government, frequent and
staggered
 Primary elections
 Americans asked to vote two or three times as often as
Europeans

8. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-8
Voter Participation
Why some Americans vote and others do not
Education and income
Age
Civic attitudes
 Apathy
 Alienation
 Civic duty
Political interest and party identification

9. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-9

10. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-10

11. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-11
Conventional Forms of
Participation Other Than Voting
Campaign and lobbying activities
Virtual participation
Political campaigns and citizen mobilization
Democratizing effects, but also lend themselves to political
polarization
Community activities
Decline in social capital?

12. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-12

13. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-13

14. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-14
Unconventional Activism: Social
Movements and Protest Politics
Protest more common in the predemocratic era
Social and political movements use conventional forms of
political participation: lobbying, voting, writing letters
They also can use unconventional means: protests
Civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s
Vietnam War protests in the 1960s and 1970s

15. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-15
Unconventional Activism: Social
Movements and Protest Politics
The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street protest movements
Each social (political) movement started with anger at
established interests
Tea Party:
 Initial target: Republican lawmakers for the 2008 bank
bailout
 Played a key role in Republican takeover of House in
2010
 Resulting House turmoil has weakened popular support

16. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-16
Unconventional Activism: Social
Movements and Protest Politics
The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street protest movements
Occupy Wall Street:
 Began as protest against bailout of the financial industry
and government’s failure to hold bankers accountable
 Has seen popular support decline because of public’s
unease with protesters confronting police
 OWS’s target was private wealth and it aimed to curb the
political influence of large political donors

17. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-17
Unconventional Activism: Social
Movements and Protest Politics
The public’s response to protest activity
Political protests have a long history in America
Americans less likely to protest than citizens in other
democracies
Public support for protest activity relatively low

18. © 2015 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 7-18
Participation and
Potential for Influence
Individualism diminishes political participation
Lower-income Americans least likely to vote or
participate politically; lack resources and education levels
Participation reflects socioeconomic level